{"id":16503,"date":"2025-09-12T00:48:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-main-street-novelty-store-with-sexually-explicit-items-attracts-ire-of-cortez-locals\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:58:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:58:45","slug":"new-main-street-novelty-store-with-sexually-explicit-items-attracts-ire-of-cortez-locals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-main-street-novelty-store-with-sexually-explicit-items-attracts-ire-of-cortez-locals\/","title":{"rendered":"New Main Street novelty store with sexually explicit items attracts ire of Cortez locals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Storefront
Storefront of Bae\u2019s Little Secret on Main Street in Cortez. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A new novelty shop on Main Street in downtown Cortez has attracted criticism from some residents and business owners during a City Council meeting Tuesday night because of the \u201cadults only\u201d items sold and displayed inside.<\/p>\n

While not technically an adults-only store, Bae\u2019s Little Secret is marketed as a novelty shop similar to a Spencer\u2019s retail outlet.<\/p>\n

The store\u2019s front entrance features nicotine products, bongs, pipes and T-shirts, along with lubricants, lingerie, fur-covered handcuffs, body-part-shaped candles and sexually themed bachelorette games.<\/p>\n

The backroom \u2013 off-limits to anyone under 18 and hidden behind a covered door window \u2013 contains more explicit inventory, including vibrators and pornography.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are things in there that are for adults, but you can go to Walmart and buy the same thing,\u201d said Myranda Lee Ann, owner of Bae\u2019s. \u201cThey\u2019re displayed even more openly than what I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ann also co-owns a local tattoo shop, Emporium Ink.<\/p>\n

She said she followed all necessary steps to get the store approved and comply with city codes, including meetings with officials and securing tobacco and sales tax licenses.<\/p>\n

Chapter 4A of the Cortez code outlines regulations that apply to Adult Entertainment Establishments<\/a>. Ann says that her store doesn\u2019t qualify for such a designation because the percentage of the merchandise that can be sold only to adults is beneath the city\u2019s required threshold.<\/p>\n

Still, some residents and business owners voiced concerns during the meeting\u2019s public comment period.<\/p>\n

\u201cCortez Retail Enhancement is trying to promote the kids coming in on Halloween and doing trick-or-treat through all the businesses,\u201d said Chuck Doolen, co-owner of camping store Nitty Gritty Offroad, located next to Bae\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that this is very wrong for the kids to even see that in our town,\u201d he said. \u201cThis kind of store promotes all kind of bad things that are happening in our world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re concerned that it\u2019s just not good, it\u2019s not healthy, it\u2019s not moral,\u201d said Betsy Doolen, also a co-owner of Nitty Gritty Offroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ethos of our community rests on Main Street, U.S.A.,\u201d said one person who described herself as having recently moved to Cortez from elsewhere in Colorado.<\/p>\n

She said the types of stores on Main Street reflect the values and identity of the local community.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past two years, five new businesses have opened just on this block,\u201d said Tiffani Randall, owner of a women\u2019s boutique store, Love on a Hangar.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the city has actively promoted tourism revitalization, beautification of our downtown. Introducing an adult-only store in the core of Main Street chips away at that momentum and damages nearby entrepreneurs who depend on family-friendly foot traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t want people to judge a book by its cover,\u201d said Gilbert Dunston, a staff member at the shop. \u201cAt least come check it out before you pass judgment or make a final choice of the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s totally fine for everybody to have an opinion,\u201d said Ann. \u201cTheir opinions absolutely should be valued.\u201d<\/p>\n

A historical marker outside Bae\u2019s Little Secret notes that the building once housed the Cortez Newspaper Building, built in 1907, where the Montezuma Journal was published. That paper was the original version of The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

says store is not an adult entertainment shop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20238,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16503\/revisions\/20238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16503"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}